Local Nordic tobacco interests collaborated with multinational companies to maintain a united front and undermine tobacco
control policies

2Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

Correspondence to Professor Stanton A Glantz, Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California, San Francisco, 530
Parnassus Avenue, Box 1390, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390, USA; glantz{at}medicine.ucsf.edu

Contributors HH had the idea for this study and did the primary data collection and prepared the first draft. SAG worked with him to provide
additional contextual and historical information and transform the first draft into the final manuscript.

Received 17 July 2011

Accepted 29 October 2011

Published Online First 23 December 2011

Abstract

Objective To analyse how local tobacco companies in the Nordic countries, individually and through National Manufacturers' Associations,
cooperated with British American Tobacco and Philip Morris in denying the health hazards of smoking and undermining tobacco
control.

Methods Analysis of tobacco control policies in the Nordic countries and tobacco industry documents.

Results Nordic countries were early adopters of tobacco control policies. The multinational tobacco companies recognised this fact
and mobilised to oppose these policies, in part because of fear that they would set unfavourable precedents. Since at least
1972, the Nordic tobacco companies were well informed about and willing to participate in the multinational companies activities
to obscure the health dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke and to oppose tobacco control policies. Cooperation between
multinational companies, Nordic national manufacturer associations and local companies ensured a united front on smoking and
health issues in the Nordic area that was consistent with the positions that the multinational companies were taking. This
cooperation delayed smoke-free laws and undermined other tobacco control measures.

Conclusions Local tobacco companies worked with multinational companies to undermine tobacco control in distant and small Nordic markets
because of concern that pioneering policies initiated in Nordic countries would spread to bigger market areas. Claims by the
local Nordic companies that they were not actively involved with the multinationals are not supported by the facts. These
results also demonstrate that the industry appreciates the global importance of both positive and negative public health precedents
in tobacco control.

Footnotes

Funding This work was supported by National Cancer Institute Grant CA-87472 and the Erkki Poikonen Foundation. The funding agencies
played no role in the conduct of the research or preparation of the paper.

Competing interests HH served as an expert witness for a plaintiff in tobacco litigation discussed in this paper, Salminen v. Amer Sports Oyj
and BAT Finland in 2008 and in 2009. SAG has nothing to declare.